Tiptoe

Tiptoe

Welcome to English in a Minute.

Ballet dancers are known for dancing on the tips of their toes.

Tiptoe

It sounds as if Anna and Jonathan are going to dance for us.

Thanks for going to my friend’s art show last night.

Yeah, it was…fun.

What did you think of her paintings?

They were…hmm, let’s see.

How can I say this?

The paintings were… they had…

Don’t tiptoe around the answer.

You won’t hurt my feeling.

Okay, they were terrible! I hated them.

If you tiptoe through a room at night you are trying to avoid being heard.

In conversation, to “tiptoe” around a topic, is to talk about it carefully to avoid hurting someone’s feelings or to avoid an argument.

And that’s English in a Minute!